Mel Allen

Mel Allen, editor of Yankee Magazine:

Mel is the fifth editor of Yankee Magazine since its beginning in 1935. His career at Yankee spans nearly three decades, during which he has edited and written for every section of the magazine, including home, food, and travel. In his pursuit of stories, he has raced a sled dog team, crawled into the dens of black bears, fished with the legendary Ted Williams, picked potatoes in Aroostook Country, and stood beneath a battleship before it was launched. Mel teaches magazine writing at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and is author of A Coach's Letter to His Son. His column, "Here in New England," was 2009 National City and Regional Magazine Awards Finalist for the category "Column."

Articles by Mel Allen

Every Week → Behind the Scenes →

The Eye of Heather Marcus

Questions from Readers

Why are you changing my Yankee?

Where Are the Snows of Yesteryear?

Lunch With the Traveler's Friend

Sneak Peek at the Spring Issue

8 Things for Readers to Do

Surprises

You'll See More Changes

'Best Cook' Began in Maine

A potato farmer's wife in Aroostook County, Maine

Anatomy of a Story

What You Like (and Don't) in March/April

Inside the Summer Yankee

Finding Fall in New England

Making Memories

Travel → →

Provincetown in the Off Season

Travel → New Hampshire: The Granite State →

Mount Washington Valley: Winter's Hometown

Travel → Connecticut: The Nutmeg State →

Guilford, CT: Artist Brendan Loughlin

SeeNewEngland.com → Yankee Articles →

Monadnock Region: New Hampshire

Hikes, views, and a magic mountain

Captain Richard Phillips and the Pirates

What's ahead for the Vermont captain

Monadnock Region: New Hampshire

Hikes, views, and a magic mountain

The Gift: Lake Champlain's Mysterious Photo

Sandra Mansi's photograph of something mysterious in Lake Champlain has led to a lifetime of questions. "This is what I saw," she says. "You tell me what it is."

Summer on Sebago Lake

Provincetown in the Off Season

Pictures → Slideshows →

26. Cochran Ski Area Champions

Massachusetts: Family Skiing in the Berkshires

Slide Show: Tough Mudder Race

The Rise and Fall of Eddie Perez

Hartford's Mayor on the Hot Seat

Issues → January/February 2012 →

Inside Yankee: Do Winter Right

26. Cochran Ski Area Champions

41. Winter Traditions

Issues → September/October 2011 →

Biddeford Pool

Parsonsfield 150mm

Bear Pond

Keoka Lake, Waterford

Cornish

Parsonsfield

Keoka Lake

Paradise Hill

Biddeford Pool 40mm

Here In New England: Johnson Hall Museum

Bill Johnson's lifelong collecting obsession has created, depending on whom you ask, an eyesore, a junkyard, or an unforgettable, unknown museum.

The Hunt for the Perfect Foliage Shot

Scarborough Marsh

Pine Point

Bear Pond Waterford

Inside Yankee: The Gift of Community

Issues → July/August 2011 →

Summer on Sebago Lake

Issues → March/April 2011 →

The Gift: Lake Champlain's Mysterious Photo

Sandra Mansi's photograph of something mysterious in Lake Champlain has led to a lifetime of questions. "This is what I saw," she says. "You tell me what it is."

First Day of Fishing

It's not about what you catch but what you hold onto.

Issues → January/February 2011 →

Christa McAuliffe's Messenger

Grace Corrigan has made it her mission to keep her daughter's belief in teachers and children alive.

Why are you changing my Yankee?

Massachusetts: Family Skiing in the Berkshires

Issues → November/December 2010 →

Inside Yankee

Holding On to Important Things

Yankee Classic: The Battle Within

Portrait of a Hero

Issues → September/October 2010 →

Inside Yankee: Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Issues → July/August 2010 →

Here in New England

'It Takes a Woman With a Strong Back to Pack Fish'

Inside Yankee: Finding Summer

How The Story Happened: Richard Schultz

How The Story Happened: Judith Gaines

Monadnock Region: New Hampshire

Hikes, views, and a magic mountain

Summer on the Maine Coast

A timeless portrait of a place and its people.

Issues → May/June 2010 →

Where People Fly

Ski Jumping Makes a Comeback in Brattleboro,Vermont

Classic: Worst 30 Minutes of My Entire Life

Why are you changing my Yankee?

The Smells of New England

New York City's Maple Syrup Smell Gets Me Thinking

Issues → March/April 2010 →

Captain Richard Phillips and the Pirates

What's ahead for the Vermont captain

Issues → January/February 2010 →

Classic: An Allagash Love Story

Brattleboro, VT: Harris Hill Ski Jump

Famous landmark is restored

Issues → November/December 2009 →

Inside Yankee: Staying Power

Here in New England: Hard Work

Nancy Brown's balsamic vinaigrette

Issues → July/August 2009 →

Pan-Mass Challenge

Pan-Mass Challenge goal: find a cure for cancer

The Rise and Fall of Eddie Perez

Hartford's Mayor on the Hot Seat

A Letter to our Readers

Our Fleeting, Breathtaking Season

The Rise and Fall of Eddie Perez

Hartford's Mayor on the Hot Seat

The Smells of New England

New York City's Maple Syrup Smell Gets Me Thinking

Issues → May/June 2009 →

Here in New England: A Wedding Story

Not everything went wrong

Issues → March/April 2009 →

VIDEO: Spring Skiing at Tuckerman

Inside Yankee: March/April

Journeys: travel the border, along stone walls, into spring

The Smells of New England

New York City's Maple Syrup Smell Gets Me Thinking

Issues → January/February 2009 →

Classic: Worst 30 Minutes of My Entire Life

Classic: Seasons of Ice

Photographer Peter Ralston on Betsy and Andy Wyeth

Discovering photography and Maine through their eyes

Inside Yankee: Do Winter Right

Parsonsfield 150mm

Overnight at Mt. Washington Observatory

Most unforgettable sleepover in New England

White Mountain Guide, Rescuer, Photographer

Joe Lentini guides, rescues, and photographs for 30 years

Inside Yankee: Snowbirds, Come Back

Issues → November/December 2008 →

Inside Yankee: Traditions Old and New

Issues → September/October 2008 →

Vanished Without a Trace

Inside Yankee: September/October

Homeward bound

Monadnock Region: New Hampshire

Hikes, views, and a magic mountain

Mystic Seaport, CT: Scale Model Version

Arthur Payne created miniature shipbuilding port

Issues → July/August 2008 →

Jim Donahue & Eugene Platt, Topiary Gardeners, Portsmouth, Rhode Island

Temple Town Band, Music Makers, Temple, New Hampshire

Ken Gloss, Antiquarian Bookseller, Boston, Massachusetts

Editor's Letter to our Readers

Goodbye to a Friend

Issues → May/June 2008 →

Ed Dahlgren of Aroostook County, Maine

1948 Broadcast That Launched Jimmy Fund

Listen as baseball players visit child's hospital room

Here in New England: Egg Deliveries

Fridays with Bert are a trip back in time

Larry Joel of Bridgeport, Connecticut

A Letter to Our Readers

Seeing New Places, Coming Back to Old Favorites

Michael Daly of Fairfield, Connecticut

Issues → March/April 2008 →

Editor's Letter to Readers

New England food, Cape Cod, and Maine's North Woods

Issues → January/February 2008 →

A Letter to Our Readers

Settling In

Here in New England: Brendan Loughlin

A Connecticut painter develops a fearless technique

Classic: Maine's Black Bears

Issues → November/December 2007 →

A Letter to our Readers

Memory Days

Maine Wreaths Go to Arlington Cemetery

Morrill Worcester takes his wreaths to Arlington Cemetery

Inside Yankee: Snowbirds, Come Back

Issues → September/October 2007 →

A Letter to Our Readers

Our Fleeting, Breathtaking Season

Issues → July/August 2007 →

A Letter To Our Readers

The Sound of Summer

Here in New England: Frenchboro, Maine

The children who saved an island

Classic: An Allagash Love Story

Hit Man of Fenway Park

Red Sox batting coach Walter Hriniak

Issues → May/June 2007 →

Here in New England

Hank, a Well-Traveled Dog

A Letter to Our Readers

Issues → March/April 2007 →

A Letter to Our Readers

Here in New England: Farm on Fire

Fire at the Spooky View Farm in Epsom, New Hampshire

Issues → January/February 2007 →

The Big Question: Bode Miller

How do you recover from a fall?

Here in New England: Eastport, Maine

The Pride of Eastport

Mount Washington Valley: Winter's Hometown

A Letter to Our Readers

Massachusetts: Family Skiing in the Berkshires

Issues → December 2006 →

Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT

Issues → October 2006 →

Boston's Jack Williams and "Wednesday's Child"

For 25 years, the TV segments have both broken our hearts and mended lives

Issues → September 2006 →

YANKEE CLASSIC: 9/11 Started Here

Five years later, Portland ticket agent profoundly remembers 9/11

Issues → October 2001 →

What Ever Happened to Daphne?

How the smartest kid in Maine fell, and recovered, her foothold on life

Issues → February 1980 →

Making the Final Choice on Katahdin

In the frozen grips of a fierce storm, each man's choice was his own

Highlight → →

Inside Yankee: January/February 2010

Highlight → →

Inside Yankee: March/April 2010

Highlight → →

Inside YANKEE: July/August 2009

Food → What's Cooking? →

Seasons to Remember

Spring summer and fall in New England

Contact → Press Room →

Why Community Matters

Blogs → Behind the Scenes at Yankee Magazine →

Father's Day at the Office

Interns inspire pride in the workday

Obama and the Little Snowflake

Obama's beginnings in a small NH town

Paper Trails

Uncovering treasures in the office

The 5 Best, Surefire Ways to Break into Yankee

Tips for writers

Write It and They Will Come

The loyalty and trust of Yankee magazine readers

The Gift of the Glaciers

Summer swimming holes of New England

Role Reversal

The strange, always mysterious process by which a child grows up

After the Ice

Something new to talk about

Writers of the Future

Another magazine writing seminar at UMass comes to an end

The Up Side to Recession

Make it do, wear it out, use it up, or do without

A Complex, Contradictory, Lovely Place

Why New England Matters

Small Towns, Big Stories

Farmer, lighthouse keeper, athlete, and student

The Rise and Fall of Eddie Perez

Hartford's Mayor on the Hot Seat

The Smells of New England

New York City's Maple Syrup Smell Gets Me Thinking

Where People Fly

Ski Jumping Makes a Comeback in Brattleboro,Vermont

The Old Volumes of Yankee Magazine

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Why People Love New England

(Even When They've Never Been Here)

The Hardwood Blooms of Spring

Woodpile envy

Tough Mudder New England